Posted by Darkhorse2009
on Thu 16 Apr 09, 2:32 PM to Darkhorse2009's blog.
Songs sometimes speak to me - they help my mood, buoy me up and help me write. Songs are evocative.
Heres a few lyrics that inspire thoughts and feelings in me:
Come and close the curtains, cos all we need is candle-light. You and me and a bottle of wine to hold you tonight. Ahaa, well we know i'm going away and how i wish, i wish it weren't so. Take this wine and drink with me, lets delay our misery.
Save tonight and fight the break of dawn, come tomorrow, tomorrow i'll be gone.
It ain't easy to say goodbye, darlin please don't start to cry cos girl you know i've got to go. ohhh and lord i wish it wasn't so.
SAVE TONIGHT - Eagle Eye Cherry. I used to play this over and over in my early to mid twenties during the 90's. Incongrously a lot of time as workout music, with my top off posing in front of the mirror. lol. Don't know what spoke to me in that song - perhaps the intransience. Romantic but impermenant.
Sitting here in the boring room, its just another rainy sunday afternoon. I'm wasting my time, got nothing to do. I'm hanging around i'm waiting for you but nothing ever happens and i wonder ...
i wonder how, i wonder why, yesterday you told me about the blue blue sky and i can see is just a yellow lemon tree.
LEMON TREE - Fool's Garden. First heard that on kibbutz in 97' - somehow i rewrote the chorus in my memory to 'I wonder high, i wonder low, i wonder why i let you go and all that i can see, all that i can see is a yellow lemon tree.'
Strange empathy because there was no girl i had let go around that time yet i was writing a lot of my own songs about 'bloke who had let his love slip away.' That was up to late nineties, a time i was transitioning from my moody angsty brooding period. Could be i had a notion or mage in my head that was both 'romantic' and tragic. It was certainly a bit masochistic like i was trying to punish myself but in the best possible way.
One song i wrote for my never formed band circa age 19-23 'The Disposessed' had these lyrics:
'Thoughts of you fill up my head, times like this i'm better off dead. I don't know just when things went wrong but time spent without you is time too long...'
into chrous - you don't know my pain, you don't know my pay yay yain, you don't know my pain and sorrow, past regrets and no tomorrowsss... repeat and at the end slow right down to almost whispered 'and no tomorrow.'
Weird because there was no girl i was broken up about - certainly not one i was singing about being better off without me.
Another verse went 'How was i to know you were the one my dear, but now i keep what i feel wrapped up in here (arm gesture over heart)rather than risk seeing you shed another single tear .. i'm not worth the tears you weep and if we were to pass in the street an you caught my eye,i'd steel myself and walk on by even though i were dying inside.'
Another song of that period i played over and over was 'Where did you Sleep last night' by Nirvana.
'My girl, my girl don't lie to me, tell me where did you sleep last night. In the pines in the pines where the sun don't ever shine, i will shiver the whole night through.'
I particually loved that the song grew in intensity - i'd sing a version that started off almost a whisper and grew louder and raspier with every verse.
WHAT ABOUT LOVE - by Heart. Of more recent vintage in my listening - this one is pure writers empathy.
'I've been lonely, i've been waiting for you. i'm pretending and thats all i can do. The love i'm sending ain't making it through to your heart ... you've been hiding, never letting it show, always trying to keep it under control. You've got it down and you're well under the way to the top, but theres something that you forgot ... what about love, don't you want someone to care about you? don't let it slip away. What about love? i only want to share it with you. you might need it some day....'
Brillient song and this is pure empathy from a writing perspective - i think of it as Samantha's song after a character from one of my books - she's singing it about another character and their tragic unrequited love. He is literally unaware of HER and because of something in his past thats shaped him, she can't even let him know whats in her heart.
So when i want to think about the story and how i'm going to progress it i listen to this and imagine its her singing it to him and it almost makes me tear up.
Theres a ton more i could mention but i'm going on too much so i'll just finish with a cool song that evokes a cool mood in me.
SEX AND CANDY by Marcy Playground.
'Hanging around downtown by myself and i had too much caffeine and i was thinking about myself and there she was in platform double suede, there she was like disco lemonade. I smell sex and candy yeahh, who's that lounging in my chair and who's that casting devious stares in my direction? Mama this surely is a dream yeahh. yeah mama this surely is a dreammm.
